I. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to apparatuses and a method to teach and show orbital phenomena and various movements studied in astronomy, physics and chemistry, and especially for the purpose of explaining and conducting experiments on how the relationship between apparent and real movements evolves when reference systems are changed, as a function of the properties of said reference system and the movements affecting it.
II. Description of Related Art
It is known that many armillary spheres propose static and dynamic representations of the solar system alone that are not in accordance with current astronomic data. It is known that some armillary spheres are more faithful to said data, but at the price of conventions and abstractions that misconstrue perceptible astronomic data that may be seen by a human viewer located somewhere on the surface of the earth (as a first example, the earth is reduced to a virtual point located at the center of the sphere, with the observer himself being reduced to an eye placed in said center; as a second example, the local horizon plane from which the observer is supposed to make his observation is by convention represented by a flat crown located on the periphery and outside of the sphere, which ensures that the terrestrial horizon would be outside of the terrestrial globe and even beyond the stars).
It is known that two-dimensional graphic representations show astronomic or physical phenomena, but that these representations are static, and do not allow adjustments, predictions or changes in point of view or reference system, nor do they allow reversible or progressive instruction.
It is known that planetariums implement optical mechanisms that allow astronomic phenomena to be represented. Unfortunately, said equipment is heavy, voluminous, very expensive and merely retrieves stored data.
On the one hand, the spectator passively watches a set presentation that reproduces only phenomena that can be observed in a night sky at a certain location on the earth at a given moment, the sky show being generated from a precise and thus topocentric horizon; on the, other hand, the spectator does not have a more complete, eccentric view of the movements and interactions in the solar system that can give him a better understanding of astronomy and, furthermore, of physics and chemistry, which planetariums do not cover.